


Palm Reading and Soul Bearing

by kbirb



Series: Soulmate AUs [4]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, implied Kandreil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 11:48:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13635687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbirb/pseuds/kbirb
Summary: My fic for the AFTG Valentine's Exchange! Cha boi is back with another soulmate AU.A JereJean soulmate AU, in which a line appears on your hand after you touch your soulmate for the first time. Of course, having one soulmate would be utterly boring, so welcome to a universe in which you can have many many soulmates. It's as easy as reading your palm (actually, much easier).





	Palm Reading and Soul Bearing

**Author's Note:**

> So, here's my logic. I like to think that perhaps where your mark shows up has meaning.
> 
>  **Heart line:** This is a person you will carry in your heart forever and to lose them would cause almost irreparable heartbreak. Most often, this is where romantic soulmate lines appear, however that is not always the case.  
>  **Head line:** This person helps to ground you, keep you calm in dire moments.  
>  **Fate line:** This person's fate is either tied deeply with yours or they are destined to change your fate forever.  
>  **Life line:** This is someone who is in your life for the long haul.

Jeremy Knox had plenty of soulmates; after all, there really was no limit. His baby sister, Isabella, was his familial soulmate. When she was born and carefully scooped into his tiny little ten year old arms, he’d felt the burning sensation of a mark being branded on hand. She had cried but he’d shushed her gently. That mark was branded in a lavender color, the color for familial marks, and followed the fate line on his palm. They’d proven to be inseparable, despite their age difference, and he made sure to visit her often and keep her updated on his exy season. His sister Hannah’s familial soulmate was their father and his brother Avery’s was their mom. Everyone had someone, in some way. Jeremy loved his other two siblings as well, there was no denying that, but his youngest sister was his heart.

When he’d met both Laila Dermott and Sara Alvarez, he’d been branded with a platonic soulmate mark, while they’d been branded with romantic marks themselves. Jeremy’s mark for each of them was a light blue line on his right palm, one tracing his life line and one tracing his headline. On their palms, his blue mark followed their life lines. They themselves had red lines coursing over their fate lines, from the day they shook hands at the first team practice of the summer. Red lines were the color for romantic soulmates.

Soulmate lines never faded and you could have more than one. You could even have more than one romantic soulmate, with the red line being on your left hand or coursing over another line all together. There was also no guarantee which line connections would follow. A platonic or familial soulmate could claim your heart line; a romantic soulmate could intertwine deeply with your fate.

Jeremy Knox had plenty of soulmates, but he was 22 now and he’d yet to get the one soulmate he feared he’d never get: a romantic soulmate.

\---

Jean Moreau had one soulmate for the past ten years: Kevin Day. Which was a shame because he was currently really mad at Kevin. What kind of soulmate abandons you to be abused again and again with no real escape? He wondered if Kevin ever looked at the pale blue mark running along his head line and regretted the choice he had made. He wondered how many pale blue marks Kevin had now, if he could pick out which one was Jean’s or if he’d had so many new platonic soulmates that Jean didn’t matter. If he even remembered the first time he’d lightly put his palm to Jean’s cheek to check out his black eye. Jean often traced the pale blue line running along his fate line, wondering why fate had decided to give him Kevin Day and Kevin Day only.

Of course, then Renee Walker came into Jean’s life and left a new blue mark, running across the fate line on his left palm. He didn’t know what it meant that day they met, why this random Fox would be his second soulmate. But she’d been all smiles and rainbow hair and when she’d lightly brushed against him, she’d paused as a mark burned into her own palm. The look she gave him was a curious one and later they’d begun texting. It was hard hiding the mark and the texts from Riko, but also Riko didn’t pay attention to Jean unless he was breaking him down, so he got away with it.

And then Renee Walker stormed Evermore and saved Jean from hell and it suddenly all made sense. She’d changed his fate forever. It was painful to see Kevin again, painful to see him with two red lines on his palms, one on each heartline. To see how Neil and Andrew looked at him and at one another. And to see that pale blue line once more. But then Kevin changed his fate as well, called up Jeremy Knox to offer him a backliner, and helped to get Jean away from Riko forever.

Even if he and Kevin never spoke again, their souls were intertwined and he just had to accept it.

\---

Jeremy picked up very quickly that Jean did not like to be touched, so he gave him as much space as possible. If he noticed Jean reaching for something, he didn’t reach at the same time, because he didn’t want to give him a startle. He also noticed that Jean had two pale blue lines, one on each palm. No purple, no red. He didn’t ask any questions.

Jeremy also noticed that Jean didn’t want to be alone, so he made sure to invite him everywhere with him. Slowly, Jean began to warm up to him and on night’s that they both couldn’t sleep, they’d sit in the living room on opposite ends of the sofa and get to know one another. Eventually, Jean opened up about his soulmate lines.

He’d looked down at his hands and then up at Jeremy, who’d cocked his head in an unspoken question. In return, Jean tipped his palms forward, revealing the two blue lines. “Renee and Kevin.”

Jeremy showed his own palms in reply. “My sister, Isabella, is the purple. The two blue lines are Laila and Alvarez.”

Jean smiled. He’d begun opening up to the two girls as well, as they often insisted on visiting to annoy Jeremy during the summer. “Makes sense.”

“Yeah, figures my soulmates would be relentless lesbians.”

That earned him a laugh from Jean, which was a rarity.

They still hadn’t touched and the summer practice season was fast approaching. He didn’t know if Jean was as special as his heart was telling him. Maybe he’d never find out or maybe the boy would warm up to him eventually. He felt so certain that they were connected in some way, soulmates somehow, if only he could confirm it.

\---

The summer practice season was beginning and the team was beginning to move into the dorms. Jeremy left their apartment door open, which put Jean on edge because he didn’t like strangers wandering in, but as captain Jeremy wanted to be available to help anyone who needed it. He’d also baked a ton of cookies and left them on the counter for anyone who stopped in. The only problem was Jeremy could be forgetful, so the first couple of batches burnt, and Jean had wound up taking over. Which is how Alvarez found him in an apron when she stopped by.

“Nice look,” she commented, leaning against the island in the kitchen. He spun around glaring and she snapped a picture. “Oh this is perfect blackmail.”

“Don’t. You. Dare.” Jean ripped off his oven mitts, prepared to snatch the phone from his teammate.

“I won’t send this to anyone if you promise to come help me and Laila move stuff.”

“Sara, don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t know how to manipulate people.”

She smirked, grabbing a cookie off of the counter.

Afterwards, with muscles aching (how did he let himself get so out of shape?), he slumped down on the couch in his room with an iced tea Laila had made him. His tank top, something he never thought he’d be comfortable wearing as it showed off his arms and his scars, was sticking to his chest and he’d turned up the air on full blast.

Jeremy walked in, looking equally beat and flung himself on the floor of the living room. He peeked up at Jean around one arm and sighed. “Alvarez rope you into moving them in?”

“She blackmailed me, Jeremy. Actual blackmail.”

“Oh I know, she’s done that to me before as well.”

They sat in silence for a while before Jean moved to take a shower. Afterwards, while Jeremy was showering, Jean dug through the takeout menu drawer and settled on Chinese. By now, he knew Jeremy’s order and he texted Laila and Alvarez to find out their orders, knowing full well they’d be stopping by and then would complain if he _hadn’t_ ordered them food.

And then he stopped and stared at his cellphone. Because he, Jean Moreau, had friends. It wasn’t the first time he’d realized this, he knew Jeremy was his friend, but he hadn’t realized how much he’d grown in such a short while. He still didn’t want to be touched, but now he could sleep if Jeremy wasn’t in the room. He cared about upsetting people. He wanted their company, he helped them move, he was able to take a joke. He was changing.

After lunch, he and Jeremy fell into their respective beds for what Jeremy fondly called "a food coma nap."

That night, the Exy team threw a massive party for all the teams who had moved in early, which Jean wasn’t particularly in the mood for, but he didn’t want to ruin Jeremy’s fun. Since no RA’s had moved in yet (a foolish mistake on the university’s part), they could use their entire hallway of apartments to host the event. Everyone left their rooms open. Certain apartment were designated for dancing, some for casual conversation, others for drinking games, and all for getting wasted. Jeremy’s room was frequented by many members of the team, some simply seeking out more of Jean’s cookies in a drunken haze. They’d made their apartment a conversation place so that it could hopefully be more mellow and calm for Jean. Both he and Jeremy had abstained from drinking; Jean remembered too clearly what Kevin was like drunk and Jeremy was doing everything in his power to keep Jean happy.

At one point, loud whooping sounded from the hallway and Jean meandered over to the door to investigate. To his surprise and horror, there was a girl running through the hallway stark naked, whipping her bra above her head and hollering as she went. 

Jeremy laughed behind Jean. “That’s Row, you’ll got to know her. She’s a wild one.”

“I’m too sober for this,” he replied.

“You’ll get comfortable enough for our shenanigans eventually.”

Jean mocked him for the word shenanigans.

The next morning, Jean was rudely awoken by Jeremy throwing a pillow at his head. The clock read 7:30 and he shoved his face in Jeremy’s pillow in reply.

Jeremy tutted at him, which was something Jean imagined a mother would do. “We have work to do.”

“Practice isn’t until 12, it’s summer hours, Captain Sunshine!”

“But you haven’t practiced once this summer. It’s time for you to move past this block of yours. You need to get used to the court before I’m willing to let you practice against my teammates.”

Jeremy opened his mouth, prepared to fire back a snarky reply, but he knew Jeremy was right. They’d been running together all summer but Jean hadn’t touched anything to do with exy since leaving Evermore. Coach had even given him his own set of keys, but he hadn’t been ready. When Jeremy would practice with Laila and Alvarez, Jean would lay in the stands and read or nap or watch sometimes in slight interest. But he hadn’t done anything else.

Jean knew he’d sit out at first, let the new freshman adjust to playing the sport at college. But he should have known Jeremy wasn’t going to let him go that easily. Their private practice was hard, but he knew it was worth it. Jean ached to do Raven drills, but Jeremy wouldn’t let him.

“You’re going to learn Trojan drills and when you practice with my team, you’re going to be polite.”

Jeremy then shot a ball at him as hard as he can, making Jean think fast on his feet.

After they were done, they showered and went to a diner that was close to the courts for brunch, where they met up with Laila and Alvarez who had been lucky enough to sleep in. When Laila heard about their morning practice, her eyes lit up.

“If Jean’s back on the court, I want in.” Which is how they wound up becoming a group of four, with Alvarez mumbling something about ruining perfectly good summer mornings.

They went back to the court, where the team was gathering and catching up from the summer. When Jeremy walked in, they began to quiet down, but he waved at them to continue talking and made his way to the Coaches’ office with Jean in tow. They’d already agreed with all the head coaches to allow Jean to sit out for a while, but Jeremy had promised regular updates on how their private practices were going.

There were three coaches for the Trojans, something the Ravens would have never done. There was Coach James Rheman, the head coach who the team simply called “Coach.” Then, there was the offense coach and the defense coach, who worked separately with their halves of the team to develop their strengths and devote fair and equal attention to all.

After debriefing on the morning, Jeremy got the okay to include the girls in their morning routines. He was ushered out by Coach, who told him to get Jean introduced to all of his team members.

And so Jean was introduced to the entire team, with Jeremy chattering away details at him in the background. Names stuck like glue, but details about each person were harder to maintain; however, Jean was okay with that. He figured he didn't really need any of the details, just the names. Leslie, Olivia, Mika, Van, Max, and Andrew were the freshman recruits that Jean would be working closely with. Though Jean was a seasoned player, he’d need to prove his place on the Trojan court.

The only details that interested him truly were about two of the sophomore strikers, Nat and Lea, who Jeremy explained were recent transfers from Germany who wanted to play on the Trojans. They had been arguing in German when he'd walked in, reminding him of Kevin's guard dog, Andrew. Jeremy explained they had a habit of fighting with one another, but worked well on the court when needed. Though Jean would be across the court from them, as a backliner, he’d go up against them in practices and was interested in seeing if they really could make it work.

But first, Jean would have to learn to get along with all of these people. It seemed like even Jeremy was skeptical he could do it. To be fair, Jean wasn’t imagining an easy first year either.

\---

It was too early for them to figure out that they were soulmates, Jeremy knew this. He knew Jean wasn’t ready. And yet when it happened…

Jean, Jeremy, Alvarez, and Laila had been doing morning practices for a few weeks now. Jean was required to sit out of normal practices, though he did sit with the coaches and take notes on how the team played. Jeremy knew from looking at Jean’s notes that he was nowhere near ready to join the team. The stuff he said, well, if you didn’t know him well enough… it was downright cruel and mocking. For Jeremy, reading the notes, he understood where Jean was coming from. He was used to Raven perfection, Raven precision, and being able to say snarky and hurtful things without affecting people.

It was sometimes hard to reconcile the Jean he’d seen growing with the Jean that the Exy court brought out.

During morning practices, Jean was resistant to learning the Trojan drills, which only served to annoy Jeremy and the girls. He’d put his foot down multiple times and eventually Jean had stopped arguing. He’d taken to calling him Captain Sunshine though, which caught on very quickly with the girls.

One morning, Alvarez popped into the boy’s changing room. “Hey Sourpants,” she said with a nod at Jean. “Morning Captain Sunshine.” They both glared in reply causing her to laugh. “I have an idea.”

“Sounds bad,” retorted Jean, but Jeremy could hear in his tone that it was supposed to be a joke. Jean’s heart had softened towards the girls by now.

“How about a scrimmage? Boys against girls with an unguarded goal on one side.”

Two on two scrimmages were something Jeremy loved, because it gave everyone an opportunity to learn how to cover different places on the field.

“Boys against girls is boring,” he decided. “Make it interesting. Me and Laila against you and Jean.”

She smiled. “I’ll go get it ready.”

Jeremy turned to Jean next, who was chewing on his lip. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure I’m ready to get into a physical scrimmage,” Jean confessed.

Oh. Right. Jeremy immediately felt like an asshole. “I forgot in my excitement,” he confessed. “I can go tell the girls -”

But Jean cut him off. “I have to be ready eventually, right?”

So they wound up on the court, with the verdict that they’d play each game until 10 points and it would be best two out of three. Jeremy was excited to see Jean back on the court and in his true element, though he was worried that all the Raven roughness would come out in his style. But Jean seemed hesitant to get too near Jeremy or be too rough with him or Laila, which resulted in a lot of screaming and cursing on Alvarez’s end. Jeremy and Laila won the first scrimmage, which led to Alvarez calling a “team meeting.”

Jeremy couldn’t hear what she was saying to Jean, as she’d dragged him by the racket to the other end of the court, but when they came back there was a new level of determination in Jean’s eyes. The second scrimmage was a closer call, with Jean finally fighting back the way Jeremy knew he had in him. Unluckily for them, Jeremy and Laila still won, but by a very close margin. They then did drills for a few hours, Jean pushing himself harder and harder. The regular team had off because it was a Sunday, so there was no afternoon practice to prepare for.

When they went back to the locker room, Jean groaned as he peeled off his uniform. “My legs and arms feel like jelly,” he admitted to Jeremy. When Jean was exhausted, his French accent thickened and the way he said jelly made Jeremy giggle a bit. He slumped next to Jean to undo his own uniform while Jean cocked an eyebrow at him. “Why do you laugh at me?”

Jeremy smiled. “Your accent, it’s cute when you're tired.”

And Jean immediately shut up, staring at Jeremy quizzically. Jeremy could feel his face growing red and quickly excused himself to the showers.

_Why did he say that?_

He wasn’t sure exactly how to face your roommate after calling him cute, but he knew eventually he’d have to leave the showers and that Jean would need a shower as well. So they’d have plenty of time to forget about it. 

\---

Jeremy had called Jean cute and he wasn’t sure if that’s what normal friends do, because he’d never really had normal friends. He didn’t know if Jeremy even liked boys. It was normal for Laila and Alvarez to call him cute, they were his friends and liked girls. It was normal for fans to call him cute, guys and girls alike. But Jeremy? His roommate, his teammate, arguably his best friend.

Jeremy had gone out with the girls to pick up lunch but Jean had opted to stay home. He sat in the living room, staring at his upturned palms, tracing the two blue lines one after the other. He texted Renee every day, but he didn’t even know how to ask for her help. Kevin was his platonic soulmate, but he hated him for everything he’d done. So who was Jeremy to him, if Jean would call him “best friend?” He wouldn’t know, because he’d never touched him. And Jeremy, sweet and respectful, had honored that decision.

At practice, Alvarez had pulled him aside for her version of a pep talk. “Listen, Monsieur Grincheux,” she said, jabbing a finger into his chest. He was surprised at her translation skills. “Let me clue you in on a thing. No one has ever gotten a soulmate mark through Exy padding.”

“How did you -” Jean began to ask, but of course Sara cut him off.

“You’re afraid of being touched for many reasons, and I understand this. Jeremy has clued us in on some things. But you’ve never been afraid of Exy and my only conclusion is that you’re not ready to find out if any of us really matter to you. But I don’t like losing, even in practice, so you’re going to kick some Knox ass.”

Jean hadn’t had a crush in a long time, so he wasn’t sure what it felt like. But what if he had one on Jeremy? How would he even know?

Maybe he _would_ call Renee, but later.

The door clicked open and in filtered the voices of Jean’s friends. He shook the fog surrounding his thoughts off and got up to help them carry in the takeout from the diner. If the girls noticed how he was avoiding Jeremy’s eyes, they didn’t say anything, just carried the conversation as they often did.

Jean tried to act normal but about halfway through the meal, disaster struck. Or, not disaster, but something he wasn’t prepared for.

After distributing everyone’s meals, they’d gathered on the living room floor and put on a movie for background noise while they ate.

Laila took one bite of her hash browns and wrinkled her nose. “Something’s missing,” she decided. “Can someone pass the salt?”

And, despite being careful all summer, it finally happened. Jeremy reached for the salt at the exact time as Jean, causing their hands to brush. Jean felt a burning feeling on his palm, which he hadn’t felt since meeting Renee, and jerked violently in surprise. Jeremy stared at him and then quickly grabbed the salt and passed it to Laila. Alvarez was watching the exchange quizzically.

Jean noticed Jeremy clenching and unclenching his fist, staring determinedly at his plate of food and he knew he’d felt it too. So he quickly excused himself to the bathroom, where he flicked on the fan to cancel out the noise. Unclenching his fist, he discovered a red line running along his heart line.

He texted Renee and then decided not to wait and called her instead.

“Having your first gay panic?” Came the voice on the other line. It wasn’t Renee, but her teammate Allison. “I knew this day would come.”

Jean growled.

“No need to get feral, she’s right here, she was just up to her elbows in pie crust.”

Then, Renee’s sweet voice filtered over the line. “Ignore her,” she told him. “She’s been spending too much time around Neil lately.”

Jenee let out a shaky breath. “Help,” he implored.

“Your text just says ‘Jeremy gay?’ so I can’t really help without details.”

So they sat in silence for a moment while Jean calmed down. He finally unclenched his jaw enough to speak. “What if I’m not ready for a red line across my palm?”

“Oh Jean, no one ever is.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Please find me on tumblr at @uscjean
> 
> This was not edited by anyone other than me, so please excuse any mistakes! I didn't want anyone to see this ahead of time. I may come back through with an edited version in a bit.


End file.
